Here's why the alt-right loves Kanye West

Kanye West is back on Twitter after deleting his account last May, and his tweets are being praised by the alt-right.

Among the Yeezy updates (hello, track pant boots) and inspiring reminders that even Prince started at the bottom, Kanye's frequent tweets have slid to the right. The far right. His tweets seem to resonate with the base of r/The_Donald, a controversial pro-Trump subreddit.

It began on Saturday, when he tweeted his appreciation for right-wing commentator Candace Owens, a frequenter on Fox and Friends and an outspoken critic of Black Lives Matter. In a recent vlog, Owens argued that Black Panther is a "Pro-Trump" movie since the successful (and fictional) Wakandans were "tough on borders." Owens is also infamous for launching a Kickstarter to fund a site for doxxing cyberbullies.

And while some of Kanye fans were quick to question his choice in political personalities, the rapper found support among some deeply conservative followers — many with Twitter handles and bios that proudly echo Trump's "Make America Great Again" motto.

In tweets the day after, Kanye said, "we have freedom of speech but not freedom of thought," and followed up with "self victimization is a disease."

Then Kanye tweeted recordings of videos by Scott Adams.

The Dilbert comic creator is beloved by r/The_Donald. In a post on his site from 2011, Adams wrote that "women are treated differently by society for exactly the same reason that children and the mentally handicapped are treated differently."

In the video, Adams describes Kanye as our leader in the "golden age," since "the universe seems to be serving up more surprises than normal." "Surprises" include Trump winning the presidency.

If you think the saga couldn't get more bizarre, far-right talking heads flocked to the rapper with support.

Bill O'Reilly, who once called Kanye West and Jay-Z "gangsta rappers" who are "a fundamental disease," tweeted a call to arms against the "American Stalinists" attacking Kanye.

Kanye West finds himself under attack by the American Stalinists. Please read my column posted right now on https://t.co/fqUvO5EEW0 about the attack crew. Frightening. I’ll deal with Mr. West tomorrow.

Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones tweeted his admiration for Kanye's "bold moves against the thought police" and invited him to speak on InfoWars "to see these control-freak vampires really go crazy." Jones has used the platform to peddled theories like Pizzagate and claimed that chemicals in tap water "turn the freakin' frogs gay."

.@kanyewest I admire your bold moves against the thought police. And if you want to see these control-freak vampires really go crazy, please join me on my broadcast!👌

In 2015, an InfoWars writer called Kanye "the decline of America," and way back in 2013, another InfoWars writer insinuated that the West-Kardashian power couple named their baby Saint "as an homage to the Illuminati." So Jones' newfound admiration for West is a twist. Though, let's be real, can anyone get inside Jones' head?

Jones isn't the only conspiracy theorist with a newfound interest with Kanye. Roseanne Barr, who has shared tweets equating Islam with Nazism and posted links to InfoWarsconspiracy theories about "5.7 Million Illegals," tweeted, "I want to call @kanyewest."

Which brings us to Reddit's r/The_Donald and its love for Kanye. Posts and comments about Kanye have been topping the subreddit since he tweeted about Candace Owens and Scott Adams.

The subreddit is notorious for banning dissenting Redditors, encouraging violence, and promoting alt-right ideology. (Oh, and they also refer to Trump as GEOTUS. That's God Emperor of the United States.)

In a now-deleted stickied post, r/The_Donald encouraged its subscribers to attend the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, where white nationalist groups were marching to protest the removal of a Confederate statue. The OP wrote, "I’ll be there regardless of the questionable company because saving history is more important than our differences."

Kanye may have been trending on the subreddit for the past few days, but r/The_Donald's support isn't entirely new — the community has been interested in him for more than a year. Just after the 2016 election, the rapper admitted that he hadn't voted, but if he did, he would have voted for Donald Trump. Two days later, he stopped his concert for a 17-minute tirade praising Beyoncé, calling out Mark Zuckerberg, and announcing, “It’s a new world, Hillary Clinton, it’s a new world.”

He then ended the show after performing only three songs.

r/The_Donald was flooded with articles, posts, and memes about Kanye's bizarre performance. The subreddit blames Kanye's involuntary hospitalization, which happened two days after his onstage breakdown, on "speaking out against the Democrat Establishment."

And then in December 2016, Kanye met with Donald Trump at Trump Tower in New York.

"I wanted to meet with Trump today to discuss multicultural issues," Kanye said in now-deleted tweets. "I feel it is important to have a direct line of communication with our future President if we truly want change."

The issues included supporting teachers and discussing violence in Chicago.

A lot of Kanye's beliefs seem to go against what r/The_Donald stands for. During the performance where he praised Trump, he also affirmed his support for Black Lives Matter and women's rights. Earlier this year, he attended March for Our Lives with his wife, Kim Kardashian, and his daughter, North West.

In an emotional Instagram post featuring Kanye and North, Kim wrote, "I know that the younger generation will vote to change these gun laws that so desperately need to be changed."

Kanye's more progressive stances don't phase his r/The_Donald supporters. A post titled "Listen up, Liberals" clarified that Trump loyalists "don't think Kanye's opinion is more credible because he's a celebrity." The post continued with a baseball analogy:

"No one bats a thousand. Chances are, Kanye has more than a few views that we wouldn't agree with. That's okay. Everyone does. We can disagree with those, while still appreciating him for getting the things he gets right. Let the liberal progressives demand ideological perfection. We're better than that."

Kanye is the most divisive topic on Twitter since Disney movie brackets and pineapple on pizza. Conservative comedian Terrence K. Williams tweeted a video of himself dancing to Kanye's "Stronger" after the rapper praised Candace Owens, while The Good Place writer Rae Sanni called out conservatives who "only pretend to resent the Hollywood elite."

"They just want to be famous on their shitty terms," Sanni said.

When Kanye lauded fellow artist Donald Glover as a "free thinker," Childish Gambino fans were quick to separate him from the problematic fave. "Keep Donald out of this," one replied.

And although many mainstream conservatives haven't publicly spoken about the alt-right's embrace of the "Life of Pablo" artist, a Trump alert bot reminded people that Eric Trump liked a certain Kanye tweet: "question everything."

While everyone reacts to the recent developments in Kanye's political stances, he hasn't confirmed or denied any red pilling. That doesn't mean he's been silent, though. He still tweets about playing with North and drops sage words of advice in the most Kanye way.

So there's the history of r/The_Donald's love for Kanye West. What memes will they churn out once Kanye's philosophy book is published?

UPDATE: April 25, 2018, 10:26 a.m. PDT Kanye tweeted again on Wednesday after this story published, telling the internet "the mob can't make me not love him" in regards to Trump. He later clarified his statements at Kim's request, saying he does not agree with everything Trump does.

You don't have to agree with trump but the mob can't make me not love him. We are both dragon energy. He is my brother. I love everyone. I don't agree with everything anyone does. That's what makes us individuals. And we have the right to independent thought.

Mashable
is a global, multi-platform media and entertainment company. Powered by its own proprietary technology, Mashable is the go-to source for tech, digital culture and entertainment content for its dedicated and influential audience around the globe.